Jordan

Our last "baby moon" as they call it, the last holiday without kids, without diapers, without someone else's much needier schedule. For the long Orthodox Easter, we decided to go to Jordan, only a 1-hour flight away to Amman, and check it out. We'd heard great things about it, couldn't wait to go.

Left on Friday morning, early. Had an easy flight, car rental and got to Madaba, mostly to go to St George church and see the mosaic map. And it was pretty amazing, from the 5th century it still pretty much depicts the political situation of the Modern Middle East. Makes me wonder why we (well, some of us) try so hard... then we had lunch at Saraya. Your standard meze, but a very nice little courtyard, cool and out from the sun and very nice people. After lunch we went to Mt Nebo -see picture.

We drove the (very) scenic route to Petra, had dinner and called it a day. It's an amazing place, the area of Petra, inhabited since prehistoric times and very important on the trade route for hundreds of years, there is a lot more to see than just the treasury (made famous by Indiana Jones), see picture. Ralph made it to the Place of High Sacrifice, I couldn't. Too many steps and too hot and too fat. The only thing we really missed which is labeled as a must see was the monastery.

Sunday we drove back up towards toward the north and stopped at Karak. A crusader stronghold, it was very large when occupied and is on an amazing piece of land. It's in a higher state of disrepair than the 3 here in Cyprus, but impressive none the less.

Later on Sunday, we tried to swim the dead sea. At something like 6x the salt rate than the ocean, one can't swim. Ralph did his best to turn somersault, to swim, to do just about anything. His efforts fruitless, you can see him bobbing like a cork in the Dead Sea picture above. I, on the other hand, was as graceful as a elephant on rollerblades. Impossible to get in due to the waves (it was very windy, even had white caps out there), and once I got in, this expanding bump made me front heavy and I kept cap-sizing. Sure, laugh! It's funny now, but let me tell you, it wasn't then!

Monday we departed the Dead Sea and just a few clicks north is the Baptism Site where Jesus was baptized. Only open since 1994, after a 30 year military occupation after the 1967 war with Israel, it wasn't very crowded, is amazingly simple and I loved the explanation of HOW this is the site and not where the Israelis charge to get in.

We then drove to Amman, had dinner at a lovely Italian restaurant, the oldest in the country. Up at 04:30 Thursday to return the car, catch the flight to Larnaca and make it back to work by 09:00.

Whirlwind, again. Tiring this time. But worth it. We had a lovely time and would recommend it to any historical or holy site seekers. The number of holy sites in Jordan is truly amazing. It's pretty easy to fill up 4 day, thinking 5 may be required to do it right. They don't seem to capitalize off of them as much as Israel tries to, and certainly less bombs there. With some cautions, let me know and I will fill you in!

Budvar in Cairo?

This cracked us up, the local Czech beer adverted in Cairo... we didn't see it there last month. 

Mucha window at the Prague Cathedral - lovely!

 

The Prague Champions!

 

Nick, Jen and Colleen at the thing if you touch you'll come back to Prague

 

Prague – Vienna – Warsaw

Remember the Budapest 1/2 marathon? Seems like ages ago, however it was simply 6 or 7 months ago. This past weekend was the Prague 1/2 marathon, Ralph had some lofty race goals but I think the main goal was to get out of Cyprus, experience some art, culture, beauty, real European living and spend some time with real friends (not to mention maternity shopping, so Ralph doesn’t have to listen to me complain about it anymore!). Well, a successful trip it was!

George, Jen, Sydney and Charlotte were all there from Budapest and John and Colleen were able to make it from Sarajevo. Newcomers Nick and Alison (from Budapest) were a great expansion of the group. Ralph wanted to improve his time by 5 minutes, which to you and I may not sound like much, but spreading 5 minutes out over 13 miles is a 30 second per mile improvement. Quite a lot. Well, that carbo-load the night before –must- have done something because he improved his time by 9 minutes!! He did so great, it was really a great accomplishment. Sunday was spend mostly recovering, we ain’t what we used to be and between the sore backs, knees and general muscle achiness, it was a great day to lay low, read: late breakfast, a visit to the Mucha and shopping!

And what a stellar success, thanks to C&A, H&M and a couple other little stores. I ended up with 8 tops and 2 pairs of pants (all for the price of 2, yes TWO, skirts in Cyprus)! I may be sick of them in 4 months, but at least I have a choice other than leaving my zipper open – how embarrassing! And I got a range of sizes hoping it will last a while. There is 1 more pair of pants I’d love to get my hands on, hoping that Jen can do it when she’s in Vienna next weekend. That night we shared a lovely meal with John and Colleen at Brasserie M (thanks to Mom! - great find).

Monday was a day to double back to the castle, the walking streets a nice lunch and general down time in a world class city. I left for Vienna at 21:00 and Ralph to Larnaca at 22:00. Vienna was nice, a tad strange to return to the ‘scene of the crime’ without Ralph, but again nice to be in a city with art, culture and class. My presentation/event (Tuesday) for work went okay and the Wednesday I was able to spend some time at the Kunsthistorich in the Museumquartier. Flew to Warsaw, gave the same presentation / event Thursday and flew back to Larnaca that night. While I was less than thrilled to get back to Nicosia, it was great to see Ralph and the puppies!

No more work travel planned until the big trip back to the States for the babies. Which I suppose is a good thing. Even though I have a ton more energy this trimester and that need to sleep 20 hours a day is over (thank God) I still get pooped out by about 4 or 5 pm and found those after work mixers to be just exhausting. Only other personal travel we are looking at is Jordan over Orthodox Easter (end of April). I need to hop on it and get something planned very soon.

Oh! The Prague 1/2 was so good, that everyone is already planning on running again in Budapest this fall. It will be a blast, for those who can go. It’s Labor Day weekend, and I expect to still be at home with the babies…. Lucky Ralph gets to travel again and have fun with the usual suspects. Hummmmm putting this, the planned trip to Italy for skiing next February and I’m thinking he owes me!!! ;) let’s see…. A weekend at a spa, a long weekend at a yoga conference, a week in Paris –now that’s getting close!

Puppies update... or are they dogs now?

As you can see, the puppies are doing well and won’t be puppies for much longer. My how they grow! The bandage on Athena is from when she was fixed, she’s fine now as is Achilles. I think they are around 24 kilos each and about three-quarters of their final size. We’ve been working on commands: Off, Come, Sit, Stay, Go and Leave it. Door and elevator etiquette is a biggie and we need to start on Down. And we need to do it BEFORE I leave otherwise they may never get the training.

I never considered myself a dog person, but clearly we’re both totally taken with these two and don’t regret a minute of the time invested. I hope they like the babies and the babies like them. We could have a very nice decade of a large family!

Tug of war --note the other bone under his foot.

 

Achilles on HIS chair (ah well, it's just the Embassy's)

 

Athena with her bandage after being fixed